Defined: A Celebration of Hurley & Libby
by LostInLost18
Summary: A collection of one-shots, drabbles and vignettes about this beautiful couple who really didn't get enough screen time. Chapter 9 - "His heart thrums like a hummingbird, each beat sending the blood rushing towards his face..." Libby and Hurley meet.
1. She's Like The Wind

**Defined**

**A Celebration of Hurley and Libby **

Summary: I love the big ships but we gotta admit they claim a lot of the limelight. I was seriously devoted to this couple and the fact they were FINALLY reunited made me so happy. I've decided to do a collection of one-shots, drabbles and vignettes about this amazing couple. Each one will be prompted by a line from a song which I draw inspiration from so enjoy. I will be doing a separate collection for the other small ships too so look out for them! Some will be fluffy, some angsty and some a mixture of both!

_#1_

_Her body close to me, can't look in her eyes, she's out of my league_

-She's Like the Wind, Patrick Swayze –

Sometimes he'll pass by a shard of glass, perhaps by walking past the remains of the plane, or come across a mirror from someone's luggage and will automatically think about her, and about how odd he must look beside her. They pretty much become a modern day version of 'Beauty and the Beast.'

No prizes for guessing which of them is Beauty and which of them is the Beast.

She'll be walking towards him, simply lost in her own little world, and he'll stop and stare just because he can. Sunshine blonde hair, perky eyes which conceal secrets he has yet to discover, curves which flatter her body rather than make her look out of sorts, and a smile which could shoot down a stronger man than himself, she really is something to behold.

He has to wonder how this beautiful creature finds any beauty within his large and, let's face it, substantial body.

Sometimes he'll say something which doesn't fit the conversation and, like always, he'll blush and turn his head away, convinced she'll finally be fed up with his constant awkwardness. Each time, however, she proves him wrong, somehow finding common ground he can wander back onto, smoothly blending the honest mistake into the conversation so that he won't feel anymore awkward than he already does.

What can he offer her though? Say they actually got rescued, which is an unlikely thing to happen any time soon but he runs with the idea for the moment. What happens in the real world? Do they maintain contact? Do they start dating? Or will being back in the real world finally make her realise how awkward a couple they actually are, causing her to shoot for the nearest exit and out of his life?

He knows he's just a fool to think they can have any kind of life back in the real world. She's the princess and he's just the stable boy filling in for the prince, the guy who is infinitely more attractive on an island than in the real world where thousands of kinder, more physically attractive beings dwell. He knows he's extremely lucky she's giving him more than just the time of the day and, occasionally, he'll see genuine affection in her eyes which makes him feel like she really does care about him. That kiss still lingers on his lips like perfume to clothes – it was just as sweet, just as lasting and left a lovely reminder of its existence in the air.

Then he figures so what if he's the Beast and she's Beauty? The Beast got his girl didn't he? They still found a way to be together, even in a world where the odds were always against them. He kind of likes being compared to the Beast, even though he's pretty sure he's never had a temper like him and he's definitely certain he's never been involved in talking to supposed inanimate objects, if you went by the Disney version.

But, all the same, there's something quite magical about being like a character with the potential to change at any given moment into this attractive, kinder and softer being. And he knows if he changes for anyone, it'll be for her.


	2. I'll Stand By You

_#2 _

_If you're feeling all alone, you won't be on your own_

I'll Stand By You, The Pretenders

/./././

For a brief second, she panics. Calm, rational and cool headed Libby loses it.

But what else do you expect when you see the only calm person in your world on the edge of a cliff, staring down into the water and screaming out a name you're sure you've never heard of before?

"Who's Dave?" she asks, stepping forward.

Her gut wrenches at the sight of him there, looking so helpless and lost that she feels inexplicably guilty, like something she's said to him has pushed him to this point. He stumbles back a little and her breath catches in her throat, making it very difficult to concentrate on being rational when the image of him falling out of sight entered her mind.

For a brief second, she sees her life without him in it, and it doesn't look good for her. She can make friends quite easily but none will ever be like Hurley, who'll actually have the time to sit down and make idle chat with her and easily make her forget about the problems she pretends she doesn't have.

Problems like loneliness.

"What are you doing here?" he asks, his voice quipped with panic.

"What are _you_ doing here?" she fires back, trying not to show her panic.

He clearly looks bemused as to why she's here, and that hurts a little bit. Actually, this whole set up hurts, like he's throwing his life away just as they've reached a good point in their relationship, for lack of a better word.

"How did you know I was here?" he asks quietly.

"Jin saw you while he was fishing."

"Hah! Jin doesn't speak English!" he says, looking vindicated somehow.

She's puzzled by his tone, because the way he's speaking it's like she's said something which proves a point that he's made. She's never seen him like this before, so completely shut down that he can't find a way out other than jumping off a cliff. But then again, she's only just beginning to know him, and has no clue what he was like the 48 days before she met him.

"Sun was with him; she translated," she retorts. "Hurley, what is going on?"

His eyes look lost, as he stumbles through a weak explanation which promotes his seemingly undying belief that everything here isn't real. He seems to stubbornly cling to this idea, having obviously heard from somewhere that this situation he's in is completely nonsensical. She tries to reach for him, but he stumbles back, and so she stops.

"Ok, Hurley, you're having some sort of panic attack," she says quietly. "I get that. But this isn't like you."

"Like me? You don't know me!" he snaps.

Her eyes turn downcast, and every single word he releases has the power to crumble her just as she'd started to build herself up again. She knows what it's like to completely break down – God knows her years in Santa Rosa will always haunt her – but he is one of those people you can't even imagine getting to this point.

"I was starting to," she replies quietly.

That doesn't touch him, however, and it seems like he's wrapped himself up in a bubble that she can't break through. It's almost frustrating hearing his beliefs, because she knows he knows it's rubbish, but he's entertaining the notion because he's scared of confronting his own emotions. Maybe she's overanalysing it, maybe he really feels like this and everything she feels towards him is based on a lie.

No. She refuses to contemplate that, and refuses to give up on him.

"What was the man's name who broke his leg?" she asks, when she's sure he's not going to budge on the whole _this-isn't-real _belief. "The day of the crash on the other side of the island, Eko brought a man with a broken leg to me for help. What was his name?"

He looks confused and she feels slightly triumphant, having seen a way to snap him out of this.

"I don't know," he reluctantly admits.

"You don't know," she admonishes. "You know why? Because it happened to me. His name was Donald, and I buried him. I buried a lot of people, Hurley. So don't tell me that that wasn't real. And don't tell me you made me up. It's insulting."

She gets tears in her eyes just remembering that, but she won't admit to him that the real reason is she's afraid of losing what they have and his remark that he 'made her up' is insulting. It's slapping her in the face and telling her she doesn't matter. That none of this matters.

"When you saw me on the beach this morning was I holding a slipper?" he asks quietly, finally caving in to reason.

"Not that I can remember, no," she replies, taking his head in her hands. "Hurley, look at me. _I_ am real. _You're_ real. _The way I feel about you, _that's real."

And, without hesitation, she kisses him. He's sweet, he's kind and he has a wonderful way of taking care of people, and so she has no regrets kissing him. He needs to see she does care about him, and she can feel his surprise when she does so.

"And that was real," she whispers, watching him slowly smile.

"Maybe you should do it one more time just to be sure," he whispers back.

She laughs, giddy with relief, and then holds his hand to help him down. But she doesn't let go when he's safe on sturdy land, because she needs to feel him there beside her. Knowing that she almost lost him is enough to remind her how fragile life can be and she yearns to spend more time with him, to get to know him more.

"Do you really think I can, you know, change?" he asks her as they walk back.

"Yeah, I do." She smiles sincerely at him.

He just needs a little faith, and the knowledge she'll always be there for him. But she can't help but lose that smile when she remembers her state being similar to him, and glancing back at that cliff reminds her how quickly things can change. And Hurley's little break down reminds her even the strongest can fall.

She doesn't want to go back to that place where she felt crazy, and where every little thing made her sink into despair and loneliness.

So, in that respect, he's saved her just as much as she's saved him.

**A/n: thank you to Jimelda for commenting on the first little story! This was longer than planned but I think I needed to do Libby's p.o.v. of the cliff scene. It needed to be done, especially the reasoning behind her frown at the end. **


	3. Never Say Never

_#3_

_We're falling apart, and coming together  
_Never Say Never - The Fray

It seems like in their moments of weakness, they find their strength in each other. It's almost poetic.

It took nearly losing him to make her realise what he means to her, what he will always mean to her. He may be huge in stature, but he has a huge heart to counterbalance it. She really likes him, and knows this tiny spark they have between them is hot enough to burn into a flame if they fan it just right.

She gets depressed sometimes; when there's no one to talk to but the night sky and the heavens. She used to pick a star, close her eyes, and then wish on it; now, she wishes she actually has something to wish for. In those little moments of weakness, she turns to him, who always wears a smile.

She doesn't fall apart; not anymore. But she will drift away sometimes, lost in thoughts she wishes would stop haunting her. Thoughts of another version of her, a version with vacant eyes, a pale face and hands which constantly claw for a presence which will never come.

A familiar arm will land on her shoulder, pulling her back to the present.

He keeps her anchored to the bay of reality, when all other forces try to sway her, move her, keep her astray in her own consciousness.

She drifts away; he brings her home.

He loses his mind; she softly coaxes it back.

She's haunted by memories old; he exorcises them with his tender nature.

He falls apart; she brings them both closer together.

They fall apart to fall together.


	4. A Blown Out Candle

_#4_

_Your love's a blown out candle…__  
_Chiquitita, Abba

Grieving, he learns, is not a quick process.

It's rather like the tide; each time it hits him, it takes away a part of him, a part of him he can never get back. He treasures the faith she had in him - she'd given him more faith than he'd ever had - and wishes her face would stop haunting him.

You would've thought each funeral they had would've gotten easier to cope with for the next time. It hadn't. If anything, it becomes harder and harder, only because he remembers what it was like to see her beautiful face disappear underneath the earth. And he clenches his fists, fights back a fresh wave of pain, and lives to see another day. Another painful day without her.

He wishes he could snuff out the grief, like a candle or an open flame.

He'd rather deal with the short, sharp pain which only lasts for a second than something which drags on for eternity.

She's his blown out candle, with one crucial difference -when a candle is blown out, it's blown out and nothing more remains but the faint smell reminding you of what had been; with her, he'll always have that sharp reminder of how his forgetfulness cost him dearly. Her memory won't go away, it continues to linger in the air like perfume.

Sometimes he prefers that than to have her fade away.

It gives him something to hold on to, something to remind him there were traces of colour amongst the black canvas which is essentially his life.

Their sweet, budding romance may have been blown out, but that doesn't mean she has to.

But the more time goes by, the more he forgets about her, like the rosy tint to her cheeks or the vulnerable twist to her smile. He forgets what colour her eyes are, whether he ever learned her real name or not, and the way she looked at him.

The candle, he realises, is slowly being snuffed out; and, this time, the memory of her refuses to linger. The one person he really wants to see, out of all the ghost's who've haunted him, is the one who remains in the shadows.

He starts to wonder if she was ever real.


	5. Good Life

_#5_

_When you're happy like a fool, you let it take you over_

Good Life - One Republic

He grins like a fool whenever he's around her.

He can't help it - her smile's infectious, making the world - his world - brighter. She has this positive way of viewing the world, and he admires that. He admires the way she can make the best out of a bad situation and still keep on smiling as if it were never a bad situation to begin with.

When he's with her, he ignores the rest of the world because it doesn't make any sense to ignore this feeling he feels when he's with her.

He'd rather ignore the fact he's stuck on an island, surrounded by craziness and people who often see past him like he's invisible, than ignore the feeling which creeps through his veins like blood, growing thicker and stronger each time he meets her.

He's the happiest he's ever been.

Despite the chaos of their situation, he still finds the strength to show that.

Because of her.

**A.n. thank you for the reviews! Mean so much to me!**


	6. The Flood

_# 6_

_Oh, no-one understood, we were holding back the flood_

The Flood – Take That

It takes them a while, but they get it. They understand.

Sweet memories hit them, one after the other, pulling them under, flooding them. They try to keep afloat, but it's hard to do that and realize exactly what you have in front of you, what you lost, at the same time.

Her smile is one of triumph, and of joy. No one understood. No one wanted to try to understand how two complete strangers could possibly be connected. It was easier coming to the conclusion that she was insane, rather than searching for any other outcome, no matter how crazy it might've sounded.

His smile is one of delight, and of incredulity. His mother, scornful, rather than proud, of his many achievements kept pushing him to find a girl, determined to find someone who would love him, who would keep him rooted to the earth. In the end, as it turned out, _she_ found _him. _It just took an extraordinary amount of faith to let her in.

Faith is what had kept them sane, through all the lonely years. And it's taken them until now to realize what they'd been doing all along hadn't been drifting, as it had first appeared.

No. They'd simply been waiting – for each other, as it turned out.


	7. She Is

_#7_

_She is everything I need that I never knew I wanted_

She Is - The Fray

* * *

He's been dreaming about her for years. A whip of blonde hair; a shy, mysterious smile; a purple top she displays with pride; he sees the same clues, but in different pictures.

And he believes he'll find her one day.

The endless chain of events he has to attend to - parties, award ceremonies, restaurant openings - are just a step along the road to finding her. He can feel it. Happiness is in the wind, inches away from his grasp.

He feels lucky.

Amongst the sea of faces, he inadvertently searches for something he's not sure even exists. It's a dream, a fantasy, an illusion amongst illusions, but he chases it all the same. Each miss is a success _(a confirmation that he is destined for something else)_; each stumble is a stumble towards her.

And even if she is a fantasy, just a product of his mother's nagging and his own loneliness, well, she's a fantasy worth having. She's something to dream about when the boredom sets in; she's something to run after when the starting pistol sets off; she's an arrow Cupid sent in the wrong direction.

She's the beginning, the middle, and end of his every dream.

And, in his heart, he knows this was never supposed to be his life. Behind the plastering of his plain and rundown house, there's a whole other life tucked away, only emerging in the corner of his dreams, where he can't quite see them .

And she's in every piece.


	8. Breakaway

_#8  
__I won't forget all the ones that I love  
_Breakaway - Kelly Clarkson

* * *

He takes the job for three reasons.

One, he's pretty sure there's nothing left for him back home. Not anymore. The dusty remains of a lonely life is all that is left for him and, to be honest, he has that here. And the two people he loved the most are gone. There's not even a trace they ever existed anymore _(eventually, even the name on the grave will fade with time)_.

Two, the sheer faith Jack has in him blows his mind. He's always just gone along for the ride, never really understanding anything. In his mind, he's back with Charlie, part of the small circle of people who neither needed nor wanted any involvement in anything you could slot under the category of sheer insanity. He misses ignorance _(he misses her)_.

And three… Well, he's hoping he can do some good with his new power. Numerous people have told him he's the good guy, the one everyone trusts and likes. Yet he's the one fate's spat upon time and time again _(first, with Libby, then with Charlie)_ and he can barely remember the faces of those he loved and lost. They're shadows on the wind the light can never quite catch. Sometimes, he sees Michael staring wistfully from the shadows, and he is determined to help him move on.

He'll help Desmond get home to his wife and child. He'll help those who don't have the means to help themselves. He'll help everyone figure out themselves because there's no mystery left within himself anymore. All he knows now is that he has a job to do.

But he remembers those he's loved and lost. And the moment Jack becomes part of that list, he sits down and allows his emotions to overwhelm him _(something tells him he's not going to be able to do that for a while)_. The one hope he keeps to himself - a selfish dream - is that he'll see them again, one day.

And he hopes he'll be luckier in that life than in this one.

* * *

**A/n: Thank you so much for the reviews! This one is more Hurley, than Hurley/Libby but it needed to be written. As a character, Hurley is probably the only one nobody has ever hated. So he deserved this drabble to himself, to celebrate such a universally loved character. **


	9. I Should Go

_# 9_

_My eyes begin to linger longer than they should  
_I Should Go – Levi Kreis

* * *

It's not like him to feel this way; so unbelievably distracted just by her walking past. And when he sinks into this fantasy world _(a world where she might just see him)_ it takes a while for him to snap back out of it.

Sometimes he wonders if Sawyer can see right through him. The conman, as of late, has somehow managed to increase the number of smirks and quips he's sent his way. And he wonders whether it'll just be another joke to add to the many; _the fat guy still hasn't lost any weight, the fat guy can't keep his mouth shut, the fat guy has a crush on the cute blonde…_

He feels like one colossal joke _(pun definitely intended)._ Sometimes it gets him down, to the point where even the ranch dressing doesn't appeal to him. Long walks sometimes help, but he usually ends up running into someone who ends up making him feel worse, although that's probably not their intention. It's a natural assumption to think that the only possible reasons the largest guy in camp is out in the jungle is due to him being lost, or trying to locate more food.

She walks past now, his eyes following her as she wanders over to look through some spare luggage. She picks up a shirt and examines it, the tiniest of satisfied smiles crossing her face as she holds it up against her. Without even realizing it, he mirrors her smile. He's reminded of that scene in the Disney version of Tarzan, the scene where Tarzan and the gorilla mother compare hands. It's the same sense of realization of knowing they are from two different worlds, the same sense of not fitting in yet desperate to try.

His eyes linger on her a little too long because her eyes slowly rise upwards, probably due to the fact she's cottoned on to the not so subtle fact someone is watching her. He turns away a little too quickly, desperate to try and pretend he's doing something else _(something of value)_.

"Excuse me?"

Her quiet voice takes him by surprise; her soft, quiet tones are akin to that of a lullaby, something easily listened to over and over again. And, once again, his delusions of a future that'll never happen have dulled his senses. Somehow, in the space of a few seconds, she managed to cross the space between them, and completely catch him off guard.

"Er…. Hey," he says cautiously, giving her a futile wave. "You're one of those…taily chicks, right?"

"That a cute nickname you guys have given us?" she teases, kneeling beside him, his breath stolen in an instance by her very presence.

"Er….kind of," he admits. "Does it bug you? I can stop calling you it if you like."

She laughs melodiously, taking his hand and giving it a light squeeze.

"Relax," she commands. "I'm not Ana. I don't bite. My name is Libby."

"Libby." He savours the name, memorizes it. "I'm Hurley."

"Hurley." Her smile widens. "Nickname I presume?"

"Yeah, my real name is…" He pauses for thought _(as if he has to think about what his real bloody name is!)_. "It's Hugo. But I prefer Hurley. Long story."

She nods, seeming genuinely interested in what he has to say. His eyes travel to hers, noticing the kindness and sincerity concealed there. His heart thrums like a hummingbird, each beat sending the blood rushing towards his face every time he utters a verbal comment her way.

"You wanna help me sort through some stuff? I figured I'd delve into all the leftover stuff, see if there's anything I can use," she enquired.

He's stunned into silence, afraid the yes that's surfacing on his tongue will explode out of him, effectively shattering whatever little dignity he possesses into the sky. He nods tightly, giving her his best _(but shy)_ smile.

"Sure, sounds great," he mumbles, unable to say much more. It's hard enough trying to formulate complete sentences when she's around anyway, so he sticks to short, clipped sentences.

"Great!"

She looks genuinely pleased, although he can't in all good sense imagine why. Still, he staggers to his feet and she lightly grips his arm, maintaining a stream of chatter along the way, which has its benefits – other than saving him from talking _(and making a fool out of himself) _it gives him chance to sneak in the odd stare.

It's not often he's allowed himself to feel this way about a girl. Under normal circumstances, he wouldn't have a shot in hell with anyone, and being caught staring would've been considered as bad as leering.

But, for the first time in a long time, he feels lucky.

She's talking to him, and actually touching him without flinching, and even if it evolves into nothing more than friendship, he's actually happy to have someone voluntarily walk up towards him, with no dramatic news to impart, and actually want to give him more than just the time of day.

Around these parts, that kind of interaction is a rarity, at best.


End file.
